photos and Flash animation by Patrick Scott Vickers
(Left to right) Sitting: Patrick Scott Vickers; First Row: Mary Flinn, Christian Detish, Leia Darwish, Gregory Donovan, M.A. Keller; Second Row: Lena Moses-Schmitt, Alexandra Hailey, Chelsea Gillenwater, Amitie Hylton, Paige Powers, Gabby Namm, Keenen Collins; Third Row: Doug Fuller, Mary Selph, Josh Katz, Meagan Lawrence, Kiara Moore, Christina Epperson; Fourth Row: Annie Rudy, Joe Woods, Jennifer Revis, Taryn Dollings, Trevor Hart; Fifth Row: DJ Coffey, Brandon Clifford, Mike Waite, Gabriel Boudali (Not Pictured: Randy Marshall, Susan Settlemyre Williams, Keegen Hately)
Blackbird joins individuals from its publishing partners—Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review, Inc.—with members of the Richmond, Virginia, and Doha, Qatar communities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only venture at VCU that joins together international collaborators, undergraduate students, MA and MFA students, PhD students, alumni and community volunteers, and a regional non-profit.
Lead Associate Editors Leia Darwish 2013–2014 Lena Moses-Schmitt 2012–2013 Ross Losapio 2011–2012 Emilia Phillips 2010–2011 Grant White 2009–2010 Matthew Baker 2008–2009 Tarfia Faizullah 2007–2008 Kate Beles 2006–2007 Anna Journey 2005–2006 Steven Collis 2004–2005 Maria Hagan 2003–2004 Tara Moyle 2002–2003 Jamye Shelleby 2001–2002 Blackbird benefits from the contributions of student interns, as well as from MA and MFA Graduate Assistants from the VCU Department of English. Students from the interdisciplinary PhD program in Media, Art, and Text (MATX) have also worked with us over the past five years. We are grateful for everyone's contributions. Several MATX students remain with Blackbird as advising editors.
Each year, Blackbird awards the coveted lead associate editor position to a second–year VCU MFA graduate student; to qualify, the student must already have been awarded a graduate fellowship and must have worked as an intern for the journal. The lead associate staffs the Blackbird office and is at the center of all the journal’s activities, working to coordinate communication between literary and production editors, as well as between the editors and contributors.
Staff listings are by categories; individuals are listed alphabetically under each subhead.
EDITORS
Leia Darwish, lead associate editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hidden City Quarterly, Blackbird, Southern Indiana Review, PANK, The Pinch, and elsewhere. Darwish has worked as a managing editor at Copper Nickel.
Gregory Donovan, senior editor, is a faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate creative writing program, where he serves as the director of creative writing. Donovan is the author of Torn from the Sun (forthcoming from Red Hen Press, 2015) and Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry. His poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, 42opus, diode, Crazyhorse, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared in a number of anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003). Among other awards for his writing, he is the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren Award from New England Writers, as well as grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and fellowships from the Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Donovan has served as guest faculty for many summer conferences, including the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Center, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Other Words Conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition. With director Michele Poulos, he is co-producer of the documentary film A Late Style of Fire on the life and work of Larry Levis. He has also helped to establish a Virginia Commonwealth University summer study abroad program for writers and visual artists in Peru.
Mary Flinn, senior editor, has been the director of New Virgina Review, Inc., since 1985. She is the co-editor, with George Garrett, of Elvis in Oz: New Stories and Poems from the Hollins Creative Writing Program (University of Virginia Press, 1992) and facilitated the editing of The Gazer Within (University of Michigan Press, 2001), a collection of essays by Larry Levis. Flinn served as the poetry and fiction editor of 64 and the editor of New Virginia Review. She has participated on numerous editors’ panels, served as a judge for literature fellowships from various arts councils, and been a review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Flinn won the inaugural Theresa Pollak Award for Words from Richmond Magazine.
M.A. Keller, senior online editor, is a technologist, web coordinator, and writing instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, New Virginia Review, Runes, and elsewhere. Keller is the author of a chapter, “Meghan Sapnar’s ‘Car Wash’ as a New Media Sonnet,” in RAW (Reading and Writing) New Media (Hampton Press, 2010). His work centers on electronic writing, issues of materiality and multimodal writing, and how to define, support, and teach online publishing and new media. He has taught poetry and advanced writing workshops, as well as courses in hypertext and new media. He publishes the visual blog, Abaculi, and is the editor of The Abaculi Project (forthcoming summer 2014). Keller earned an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Randy Marshall, senior literary editor, edited, along with Mary Flinn, Andrew Miller, and John Venable, The Gazer Within (University of Michigan Press, 2001). His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in Richmond Arts Magazine, New South (formerly Georgia State University Review), cream city review, and Blackbird. Marshall earned his MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Lena Moses-Schmitt, lead associate editor emeritus, is a third-year MFA student in poetry and the 2013–2014 Levis Fellow for the coordination of the Levis Reading Prize at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris-American, The Pinch, Conte, THRUSH Poetry Journal, and Superstition Review, and she was a finalist for Crab Orchard Review’s 2013 Rafael Torch Literary Nonfiction Award. She earned a BA in English from the University of Mary Washington.
Patrick Scott Vickers, online editor, is a technologist and instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in 32 Poems, Strange Horizons, Mid-American Review, Touchstone, and Miracle Monocle. His Flash art has appeared in failbetter.com. Vickers earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama.
Susan Settlemyre Williams, book review editor and literary editor, is the author of Ashes in Midair (Many Mountains Moving, 2008) and a chapbook, Possession (Finishing Line Press, 2007). Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Diode, and Shenandoah, among other journals, as well as in various anthologies.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Christian Detisch, lead copyeditor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work is forthcoming in Superstition Review. Detisch has worked as senior managing editor at The Allegheny Review.
Doug Fuller, associate production editor and lead audio editor, is a third-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poetry has appeared in Mead, The Pinch, Superstition Review, Spry Literary Journal, Bodega, and The Monongahela Review. Fuller earned a BA in English with a minor in creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Annie Rudy, lead page builder, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in West Branch and Salamander. She earned a BA in English and art history from the University of Virginia.
Mary Selph, associate production editor, is a first-year PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned an MFA in poetry from Texas State University-San Marcos and a BA in liberal arts from Hofstra University.
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Gabriel Boudali, second-semester literary intern and copyeditor, advised on selections and layout for Tom Condon’s Idiopathic Aura in Gallery. He is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University where he studies literature and creative writing.
Chelsea Gillenwater, second-semester literary intern, copyeditor and bio editor, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English and communication from Virginia Tech. She has served as an associate editor and contributor for Philologia.
Meagan Lawrence, second-semester literary intern, copyeditor and bio editor, is a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is majoring in English and minoring in media studies.
Joe Woods, lead developer, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will be graduating May 2014 with a major in English and a minor in French. His music has been featured on Bandcamp’s Staff Picks and he has a new media piece forthcoming in failbetter.
INTERNS
Brandon Clifford, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn a BA in English in May 2014.
DJ Coffey, literary intern and audio editor, is a senior in the undergraduate English program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He graduates in May 2014.
Keenen Collins, literary intern and photo editor, earned an AA in liberal arts from Northern Virginia Community College. He will graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2015 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing. He previously volunteered on the staff of Amendment.
Taryn Dollings, second-semester literary intern and page builder, will graduate with a BA in English in May 2014. She also works as the associate managing editor of Auctus.
Christina Epperson, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2014.
Trevor Hart, literary intern and photo editor, is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is majoring in English with a minor in creative writing.
Amitie Hylton, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is earning a dual degree in English and history as well as a minor in creative writing.
Josh Katz, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a second-year MA student in the English research program at VCU. He earned his BA in English and creative writing from the University of Richmond in 2008.
Kiara Moore, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University and will earn a BA in English with a minor in business in May 2014.
Gabby Namm, literary intern, audio editor, and video editor, is currently working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and film with a concentration on Filmmaking. Her films have been featured in the Richmond Radicals Film Festival, Studio 23, and the Kinetic Imaging department at VCU.
Jennifer Revis, second-semester literary intern and pagebuilder, is a first-year MA student in English. Her work has appeared in The Mace & Crown. She earned a BA in English with a concentration in journalism and a minor in psychology from Old Dominion University.
VOLUNTEERS
Zan Hailey, volunteer and photo editor, is a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, majoring in English and minoring in creative writing. She has worked for the Northern Virginia Writing Project’s Student Summer Institute, and her poems have been published in New Departures.
Keegen Hately, volunteer manuscript reader and copyeditor, earned an MFA in nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California, where she was the recipient of the 2012 MFA Advisory Board Scholarship and the 2011 Chester Aaron Scholarship for Excellence in Creative Writing.
Paige Powers, volunteer and photo editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2014.
Michael Waite, volunteer copyeditor, is a senior undergrad in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also the creative works editor for Auctus.
ADVISING & CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
John Bresland, contributing editor for video essays, works in video, audio, and print. His audio essays have aired on public radio’s Weekend America, and his video essays can be seen at Ninth Letter and Requited. His print essays can be read in North American Review, Hotel Amerika, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing and new media at Northwestern University.
María Lourdes De Panbehchi (Lulú), advising production editor, is a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her BA in Spanish literature from the University of Chihuahua, Mexico, and her MA in Spanish from New Mexico State University. Her work focuses on the relationship between smart phones and simulation, nostalgia, and remediation.
& MANY THANKS
to all the editors, staff members, interns, and volunteers who made Blackbird volume 13, number 1, possible.
Thanks to Doug Fuller, for his meticulous sound editing and for leading the audio team; Christian Detisch for taking charge of the copyediting team; Patrick Scott Vickers for editing photos and leading the photo team; and Annie Rudy for shepherding the page builders.
Thanks to Mary Selph for her tireless work editing and encoding video.
Thanks to Randy Marshall for his extensive work with submissions and for running reading group.
Thanks to M.A. Keller for his work organizing and designing a wide array of gallery suites and special builds, and for keeping us on track under tight deadline.
Thanks to Joe Woods, whose expertise makes certain special builds possible, and whose restructuring the site from the inside out ensures Blackbird's usability into the future.
Thanks to Randy Marshall, Chelsea Gillenwater, Mary Selph, Christian Detisch, and M.A. Keller for contributing text to the foreword.
And to all others—manuscript readers, content converters, pagebuilders, audio editors, transcribers, and copyeditors, our sincere appreciation. 
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